In PA, For-Profits Are Snapping up Nursing Homes

The percentage of the Philadelphia region’s nursing homes owned by for-profits surge to 63 percent this year, from 49 percent in 2010, an analysis of federal data by the Philadelphia Inquirer found. A shift of 5,000 beds comes at a critical time. Regulators are pushing for more in-home care, and conversion to for-profit could affect staffing levels for those patients who remain in nursing homes, because of differences in the way for-profits and nonprofits spend money. “The not-for-profits spend more money on staffing, which is the single most critical predictor of quality of care,” Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy Inc. in Washington, said. “Having enough registered nurses, in particular, determines quality.” Jon Dolan, chief executive of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, a trade group for for-profit nursing homes, said it is not so simple to draw distinctions between nonprofits and for-profits, which sometimes keep facilities open that would likely close without the efficiencies they bring. Differences in staffing are real, according to an Inquirer analysis of that CMS data for 237 Philadelphia-area nursing homes backed up by national studies. Recent surveys showed that the median, meaning half of the facilities provided more and half provided less, nonprofit provided 99 percent of expected registered-nursing hours per resident per day. The median at for-profits was 73 percent.

Source/more: Philadelphia Inquirer

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.